high street

Malcolm Mitchell, High Street, Hastings closed photo by Anthony ‘Nan’ Morland

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photo © Anthony ‘Nan’ Morland

Phil Gill… Class outfitters

Martin Richter… all the army boots you could eat

Glenn Piper… veritable Aladdins cave of curiosity’s and lots of boots & great coats

Lucy Pappas… Bought my very wide leg sailor trousers from there! Loved Malcolm Mitchell x

Phil Gill… Lucy, You could have washed them before you turned up at the youth club wearing them though.

Lucy Pappas… Phil, I apologise for the fishy smell. Thinking about it, that would have been when we first become friends, 50+ years ago….

Phil Gill… I didn’t mind fishy, it was the beer stains from some Norwegian sailor’s night out.

Bruce Zebedee… Great shop

Colin Wells… Malcs bootique!!

Pete Blomfield… Datsun 100a or 120y?

Jeff McCall… Great shop, bought a purple parker from there, it had a bullet hole in it!

Gerry Fortsch… I remember that they sold every thing so one day I asked for a torpedo and they came up with one.

Fred Marsh… I wonder what some of our dfls would have made of it

Lloyd Johnson… Fred, Hastings is my home town.I moved to London in 1966 I went Ore youth Club with Patrick Mitchell who’s uncle owned MM .I opened my own shop/stall in 1967 in Kensington market a year later.In 1973 I was buying similar items that we’re sold in Malcolm Mitchell’s the High st,Baldocks and Winters shoe shop in George st.,Cyril Savages in Kings Road and Apps shoe shop in Silverhill by that time the stock I remembered from the early 60s was considered vintage clothing. I remember. buying an amazing W11 leather dispatch riders jacket from MM which I wore during my Art school days at The Brassey Institute above the Library in 1961/62…I guess you could say in some ways all those shops including MM were a great inspiration for me during my time. in the clothing business as was the whole teenage experience of growing up in Hastings with The Pamdor, Fiesta ,the trad jazz at the caves and the groups on The Pier. I think it is nice to see some new small innovative businesses bring some style to the town. The DFLs’ as you seem to call the creatives from London that have chosen Hastings to make their home. Several friends from London have moved to Hastings and St.Leonard’s and I think they contribute extra style and entertainment to the Town…..

Mark Syrett… Top shop

Mike Waghorne… Top clothe’s shop in the late 60’s Malcom’s boutique we used to call it !

John Mcewen… Best work boots ever!

Dave Nattress… Even us Bexhill boys knew Malcolm’s Boutique, always on the tourist may with the Trading Post

Jim Breeds… April 2021 view (Google Streetview)

Alan Esdaile… Jim, hasn’t got the same smell as the original photo!

Hi Fi Club High Street Hastings – front door – who went to the Hi Fi?

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supplied by Leigh Kennedy

1968 Advert

Angela Frances Gardner… It was a great place to go after the pubs shut and eating the wonderful Jamaican food at Chico’s on street level before going to the Hifi club. I remember that Lou Reeds song Goodnight Ladies was always played at closing time

Jackie Hersee… I went there

Simon Fraser… I went there. If you breathed you were stone

Ian Watling… It was a great place to hang out, can’t recall many nights but that’s probably because I was having such a great time

John Busbridge… Downstairs from what I remember, I used to go there must have been late sixties or early seventies?

Diane Knight… John, got to be 70’s …I was definitely there !!!

Andy Qunta… Went there many times. I think it was there that I saw Paul Kossoff from Free and John Martyn one night!

Andrew Bantock… I’ve only been here for 32 years so I don’t know why there is a hole where the HiFi used to be.

Jon McCallion… Because they can’t replace it

Colin Bell… It burnt down in ‘mysterious circumstances’…

Jo Turner… Yup

Peter Fairless… Only went there a couple of times at most, very vague memories!

Judy Atkinson… My brother used to go there a lot, Roger Fullbrook, known as Jack, anyone remember him?

Lucy Pappas… I went a few times but it was my sister Dina’s favourite place.

Colin Bell… Many times, me & Caz could tell a few stories….

Nick Webb… Many a night spent there, and if you got to go upstairs you where well in .

Alan Esdaile… Great music, great times. We used to sit in the alcove seat at the bottom of the stairs smoking Disque Bleu and drinking what we could afford. Probably only 14 when I first went there!

Steve Burt… Yep went there wild place.

Lloyd Johnson… i went there in the 60s and helped paint the front of ‘Talkies’ cafe almost next door….Sid ran the cafe!…

Simon Fraser… Never remembered how I got home from there. 1970is

Sue Colebrook-Gentry… I worked there behind the bar from 1967 — 1972 and lived upstairs. Many happy memories. Me and the DJ Jack and a couple of regulars behind the reception upstairs.

Willie Wicking… Went there a few times with older friends but was there the night it burnt down can remember it well was in Wellington Sqaure & after the 5th fire engine went past went to have a look that was a real fire fire brigade had a difficult job must have been around 77 79 can also remember all the hoses across road into boating lake

Diane Knight… Loved the Hi fi …I used to go there with the Alderson crew ( all relocated in oz) ..such great times

Chris Meachen… Had some great nights in there, fabulous place.. Pretty sure it burned down on September 27th in whatever year…

Bernard Goffredo… that was a regular haunt

Lloyd Johnson… I remember Guy and his mate on a silver Vespa GS very early on when they first came down to Hastings during The ‘Mod days’…his mate had an accident and lost a leg, does anyone else remember his friend. He went out with Lis Parrish for a while..I remember Guy talking to Les Martin , who helped run The Pamdor about buying the Hi- Fi from Alain the Frenchman that owned it….that must have been very early on…

Colin Doherty… DJ’d there and lived upstairs for a few very enjoyable years!

 

Hi Fi Discotheque High Street Hastings – 23rd December 1967

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John Gale… Hard to believe that existed when you see the size of the gap left there after the fire

Alan Esdaile… used to be packed in like sardines!

John Gale… so I hear,  just a bit before my time

Jon McCallion… It’s where it all started Alan as you would remember, I remember Fiona she invited me for the band.

Linda McGregor… It was nothing like a discotheque when I used to go ’76-’79

Film posters High Street Hastings – 1950’s

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supplied by Graham Kelly

Alan Esdaile… Trying to work out what the music poster is?

Lloyd Johnson… Which one is the music poster Alan?….two Cinema posters, one Carnival Week, a fire brigade one and before the party on the steps…

Alan Esdaile… The one that looks like a guy in a pork pie hat and blowing a trumpet??? but perhaps its something completely different?

David Kent… it looks like the trumpet is held up to his ear. Johnnie Ray?

Ian Quinnell… Where was this photo taken? I can’t seem to place it

Roy Penfold… High Street. Salters Lane is to the left of the picture.

Mick Knights… Bottom of the steps from the Croft, when I was a school it was a scrap metal yard.

Ian Quinnell… I just hope the old established pubs can survive, they are so much at the heart and soul of of the Old Town.

Paul Coleman… Looks like a burglar to me? Hammer in hand climbing a ladder? Nah! That must be the fireman. So what’s the music bit?

Hi-Fi Restaurant and Discotheque – High Street Hastings 1970’s

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Alan Esdaile… I can smell Disque Bleu by just looking at the photo! Well I think that’s what I can smell?

Martyn Baker… Owned by Guy?

Peter Thomson… Is that a cheese?

Patricia Wapshott… I remember that place but can’t remember who ran it , think he was called Guy and his flat above was so cool , he had a sunken bed and a vast record collection , my friend Camille was seeing him and that’s how I got to see the flat . We sat and listened to David Bowie albums while he smoked a joint and I must have been about 15 then and didn’t even know what a joint was ! I just remember that it smelt disgusting and politely said no when he offered it to me that was also smelt incense sticks burning . The innocence of my youth !

Gin Genie… Guy still drinks in the Nelson on a Monday night playing shove

Will Hadfield… I think this is where people hung out in a disco downstairs owned by a bloke called guy or max

Pete Brazier… Didn’t it become the cheese emporium? Probably the Swiss blue what you thought you could smell lol

Chris Baker… Played downstairs a few times. Usually with our electrics swimming in the mix of beer and “toilet water” and getting shocks off the Mike’s and my guitar! Health & Safety? What’s that?

Jim Hobbs…. How about old beer and cigarettes.

Angela Frances Gardner… When Chico had the Jamaican restaurant on the ground floor selling ackee and salt fish

Martin Richter… disque bleu ? you crazy beatniks

Andy Qunta…  Fond memories of this place!

John McCallion… I remember it well Alan, .It’s where I auditioned with Steve D, Paul Dove and Paul Wiseman to form Muller

John Busbridge… Disco was downstairs, used to go there!

Jemma Yasmin… What a lovely building I never knew what was here it’s been a building site as long as I can remember …. do you know when and why it burnt down? With the downstairs of Fagins and this what an amazing place the old town would have been at this time?

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Hi-Fi Club, 59 High Street Hastings – 1968

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Jon McCallion… Its where Muller got started

Jim Breeds… Nothing worse than unlicensed dancing. Society is doomed once dancing without a license takes hold!

Alan Esdaile… I think before this they probably only had a license for music and not dancing. Mind you, you couldn’t do much dancing, as it was often jammed packed. Always tried to sit in the alcove at the bottom of the stairs, opposite the dj booth.